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What are people saying about PDF Annotator (New Version 6!)

Robert N.Will then the text search of the pdf file search also within my text annotations? I hope so, because without this feature soory, but it's pretty useless for most people (I already bought a similar sw just to figure out this shortcoming)

Oliver Grahl@Den: Tomorrow, here on BdJ, you'll get the best price ever. Buy here, instead of upgrading. We'll also discount our 2 Years Upgrade Assurance by 20%, you'll be able to add it at checkout. That will be the best deal to cover you within the next two years for all upcoming major upgrades, too. Go for it!

Oliver Grahl@Joe C'mon, leave us some pennies, too! Our student price is already so extremely low, giving 60% on it would mean to give the software virtually for free. If we don't get paid, we'd have to spend all night driving taxi, we better spend that time to create great software! Having said this, this deal here is even $2 less the student price, so maybe even a good deal 4u?

Roger McCallOliver - I've been using the trial version of PDF Annotator, and love it. I used to print to One Note, then put my notes on, then reprint to PDF. What a hassle. And I am looking forward to being able to have multiple documents open. My trial version is set to run out today, so your timing on the promotion is perfect. I am certainly going to get the 2 years support / upgrades guarantee as well. Thanks for writing this great software product. And for those who are reading this - I don't know Oliver and he didn't pay me to write this!

Marco SchumacherCongratulations to Oliver and his team for version 3. I've been a fan of PDF Annotator since 2006. It never disappointed me. I am in IT for 25 years and have tried a lot of software. And with Oliver listening carefully to what the users have to say, Annotator really became powerful. Oliver even added French language and optimized the memory handling of the code for huge PDF files like CAD drawings. This is real product care.

Ash GoyalHaving used SnagIt for several years, this program appeals to me to be able to do similar things on a pdf. However, the s/w could be improved with extra functionality such as common business stamps not just APPROVED (COPY, COMPLETE, DRAFT) and other similar icons from Snag-It type software.

Oliver Grahl@Mark We do our best to keep document loading times short and the whole UI experience as fluid as possible. I understand that 'our best' is sometimes not good enough. But everytime we see chances to improve application speed, we work on it.

Oliver Grahl@Ash You can create you own stamps from virtually anything in PDF Annotator. Maybe it's a bit hidden... The quickes way: Select any annotation(s) in your current document, and click "Edit, Selection, Save selection as Stamp". I think it's even on the context menu when you right click your selection. Alternative way: Open the Stamps toolbox (tab on the left bottom) and click the Plus button. Now you can even select any kind of image to create a stamp from it. But I agree that it would make sense to put more default stamps into the package. Ah, one more hint on resizing stamps! Hold SHIFT pressed while resizing will preserve its aspect ratio!

mark d.@ Oliver Grahl
Thanks for your reply! I asked because it seemed more like a bug (several minutes to open e.g. a 140MB file), and wanted to know if you were already investigating the issue.
Anyway the program is super, and keep up the good work!

Oliver Grahl@Stefan There's no such way to provide a history or flag comments by author, sorry.
@Mark It shouldn't take *that* long. If the file is downloadable somewhere, could you send the URL to support_en@GRAHL-software.com ? Thx!
@Ash Thanks, will add your list of stamps to our wish list.
@Den Sorry, no, black is black...

Randy AWas all set to buy this today, but I can't get it to display PDF's correctly.

Particularly, my AT & T phone bill is offered in PDF. It has a lot of text, most of which is framed in boxes. Your viewer displays the frames, but not the text. I can select the frames and "extract text" on them, and it will show the text in the pop up box, but it won't show it the main display.

Randy AOne other question, I am looking to integrate this with the other Bits D jour deal today (Home document manager). The printer driver (novapdf) furnished with the program doesn't appear to have an option NOT to display the viewer after generating a PDF file.

When I am converting documents, this is necessary, since I don't want to pull up the viewer every time I convert one.

I am also using PDF creator, and it offers this option. Is there a setting in NovaPDF or in PDF Annotator I am missing?

Oliver Grahl@Randy Please send the document you mentioned to support_en@GRAHL-software.com, we will of course treat it confidentially.
Regarding our PDF printer, we have licensed NovaPDF in a way that only allows us to use their printer driver to open printed docs in our application. You'd have to buy their full product to make use of it in a different way.

Randy AIf I print the document with pdfcreator, then your product can view it normally, kind of wierd.

I am going to buy the product anyway, it has too many great features to pass up. I am not comfortable sending my phone bill to you at this time, but I will look for another less sensitive document to send you down the road.

Also, I see the program has a logging capability, maybe that could be sent instead?

Gunderic HagenI did not get an answer after posting my question, so I will ask once more to decide whether to buy the software. Can I annotate, modify Pds sent to me and created by a third party? Or only those created/published by me?

Oliver Grahl@Ed Huh, where did you send that? Here? Anyway. You can annotate any PDF which allows commenting. The majority does allow commenting, but the author of PDF can deny that. In the later case case, you'd need the author password to annotate.

Gunderic HagenYea Oliver, i sent there....! Or where you driving the Taxi (Just joking). i didn't even know that there was an option to deny annotations, modifications in a Pdf!!! Would you say that 90% are like me and don't know about the option and thus by default allow modifications? Sorry to insist but i don't see much use in modifying my own Pdfs; only the ones people send me.

Gunderic HagenOliver, i am ready to buy your software, however, i do not want to pay VAT. I am in Europe right now but I am a US resident and payment will be made with a card and a billing address in the U.S. let me know how much I have to pay and the corresponding link.
Thanks.

Oliver GrahlEd, you'll buy through our reseller, ShareIt, whose responsible for collecting VAT from their customers. Make sure to select USD currency and enter your US address. If VAT is still applied, you won't get around it. ShareIt's mother company is in MN, so AFAIK, they also collect VAT for customers from MN.

Gunderic HagenOliver, I did not find your seller's website. Well, what the heck...it will not be that much anyway. Besides, it makes me feel good to contribute to the development of the EU... I'll buy it (with VAT and all).

hameed azeezhi
iwant to buy this software for my daughters name under student quoto who is sometime carries laptop at school and desktop at home. what would be the price? or should we buy this sofwtare at $27.95.
your reply willbe highly appreciated

Oliver GrahlIn general, our license allows installation of a single license on up to two computers, as long as only one of the installations is used at a time (no concurrent use).

So, this deal would be the most inexpensive way for you to get PDF Annotator for your daughter. If you don't want to wait until Nov 9th, our Student License is $29.90, and available through our website at all times.

MKWent to buy at USD 27.95 which includes 19% tax.
Paying in GBP, the cost changes to GBP 32.00 which includes 19% tax.
USD 27.95 is approximately GBP 17.39 (www.xe.com)
So how come the share-it! transaction website is getting it wrong by so much?

Ron CampbellJust posting as a long-time customer. First picked this up while on version 1 here at Bits du Jour and recently upgraded to 3. Very happy with the app for several years. If you own a Tablet or convertible PC, this is a must-have. Great for marking-up PDF docs and texts freehand or with keyboard. Developer is also responsive to requests and criticisms. Bought it on JKontheRun's recommendation and am glad I did.

Oliver GrahlEdward,
Check out the Custom button on the color picker for RGB.
In regards to Cloning, what would you like to clone? There's an option for cloning pages, and you can use the Snapshot tool to clone regions of a page (by copy/paste).

Edward SmithI saw the custom button, but I was looking to enter the RGB number so I can get an exact match to clolos already on the document.. There is no place to enter the actual numeric values for RGB. A have a program that allows me to click on a color to get the exact RGB value.

The reason I would like this and cloning, is that I frequently get POS material (from the franchisor) in PDF format that can't be altered or changed. Sometimes I don't like the offers and I want to customize them to suit my local business needs. It is important that I get the right color etc., or the "new" offers I create look like they have been changed.

john sHey Oliver....long time user since 1.0 and currently a student...Any upgrade options or just pay the $27.95. I understand if no upgrade savings from 1 to 3 so I'm in either way I just want the best deal for my money. Thanks. John.

I Just purchased this for marking up my PDF text books. The Pen function works beautiful. The Print to PDF works great printing the 20 page chapters from the text book site. My free PDF printer was only able to print about 8 pages of the larger documents.

WISH LIST

Ability to remove sidebar tabs in portrait mode.

Ability to paste a screen captured image from the clipboard directly to a document. This would make it a Microsoft OneNote killer.

Oliver GrahlGood morning everybody. Sorry for the late reply - I'm about seven hours in advance (GMT+1). But as I see, BdJ has extended our deal for a second day (THX!!), so no harm should be done.

Thanks everybody for posting your wishes. We'll incorporate all of them into our major wish list.

John S: You can either grab a new license here, or buy a student license upgrade through our website, which would be a little cheaper (but limited to educational use).

Daniel: When opening a PDF form, PDF Annotator will ask if you want to convert the form into plain pages, which will mean all form fields will be removed and you can write into these places using PDF Annotators various tools. Just download our trial and check it out using some form.

John H: There's an option under Extras, Settings, Sidebar to remove the tabs in portrait mode. You can paste images from the clipboard, is that what you're looking for?

Oliver GrahlM B: "Per seat" means, that if you buy 100 licenses, like for your whole faculty, you have 100 seats. So, if you buy a license for yourself, that's one seat.

As you already said, our Upgrade Assurance includes all minor and major updates within two years.
If you get it, you will get all upgrades for free, that others would have to pay for. Realistically, this will be one or two major upgrades within two years.
If you don't have it, you have to pay for each major upgrade at our upgrade price. Just one single upgrade costs more than Upgrade Assurance for two years.

So, you can save money, but the downside is that it's an upfront payment. On the other hand, it helps us to plan our development resources, and will provide you with a better software, over time!

Looks like I will be dumping MS OneNote bloatware and Journal for this.

YAY!

I meant in my previous post; Need to get rid of the sidebar in LANDSCAPE mode.

I just don't have enough screen real estate for those features that I will not use. I have the 5 functions I need in a floating toolbar and have closed all others. A nice clean work area except for the sidebar.

Not being able to paste a picture from the clipboard was a problem with my Screen capture/clipper program which is fixed.

Brett PoundIt'd be great if there was actually a discount on loyal customers upgrades - this deal beats the upgrade price substantially, but showing loyalty to existing holders (even if it's not the same scale as the discount on new purchase) would only go to strengthen the bond!

Pedro LaurentThe 27.95 US price promotion for the application comes to 40.13 Canadian dollars, what an outrageous conversion. 27.96 US should be 26.55 CAD. This is not even funny if this is an april fools day joke.

Oliver GrahlHi Marco,
yes, with PDF Annotator you can crop pages, add margins, insert, delete and reorder pages. You can take snapshots from parts of the document and save them to the clipboard (or to an image file, or you can even create stamps from it and reuse them in PDF Annotator).
Of course you can add images, position and resize them, and add mark-up on top of them (for example). All that happens without touching the original content (so you cannot modify the original content). PDF Annotator has a focus on adding markup to your documents with some exclusive features like true digital ink handwritten comments and mark-up, multi-touch support and a palette of easy to use tools. I strongly suggest to give our trial version a try, so you can try and compare!

Oliver GrahlHi all,
some of you reported problems with currency conversions going on at checkout. Unfortunately, as it seems, our payment processor switches to your local currency at checkout, which can make you lose the deal price of US$27.95.
Since this deal is in US Dollars, please make sure that on every page at checkout, it still says US Dollars. There's a dropdown list on top of the first checkout page, which should show US Dollars, otherwise please switch to US Dollars!

Sorry about this confusion and inconvenience. When you're coming from the US, you shouldn't run into this problem, though.

Oliver GrahlMax,
of course you can! After inserting your image, you can resize and move it right away. Hold the CTRL key down while resizing to keep its original aspect ratio. You can even create a stamp from your image, so it'll be available from the Stamps palette.
-Oliver

Software GuyGood vendor with a nice, newly revised product offering it at a great price to bitsdujour users. The new additions from version 2 really make the product worthwhile. while other products offer some sort of annotation, PDF Annotator V3 offers far more annotation options at a great price. thanks Grahl and Bitsdujour!

I saw that I can reorder page one by one but can I reorder the whole document in one click?
Let's say I have a scanned document going from page 100 to 1 and I want to reorder it from 1 to 100, can I do it?
Thanks.

Louis HI'm like you Michael. I have no immediate need for such a program, but i can see a use for it in the future. I've passed on other offers here that i did not see an immediate need for and shortly after found I needed just such a program. I would have passed on this one as I do not buy anything on credit anymore (whenever possible - truly "big ticket" items sometimes require using credit) and simply did not have money in my "discretionary" budget the first day this was offered. So it was nice to see it offered a second day running.

The comments made here - even the less than friendly ones - have been very helpful in introducing me to the pros and cons of software I would have never taken a look at elsewhere. I like that more and more vendors appear willing to offer their apps and programs via BDJ. Roger and Nico were right on the money when they told us this new year was shaping up to hold some really great deals. And even if i am not interested in the program being offered, I stop by every day to read what folks have to say about whatever the current deals are.

Years ago I worked in the software industry as a visual interface programmer (before windows). Then moved on to R&D programming for the army on developmental items. Been away from the programming side for a while but I still seem to take an interest in the customer practices of the software vendors. I tend to favor those companies that are proud of their work and try to give the customer a good value. they know full well that customer is going to come back. But those companies that place profit before everything including customer service - well, I try to avoid them. From your comments in the past you seem to have similar interests. I think that is good because the comments might make some of these companies rethink their customer policies.

Michael KI bought this program when it was offered on BDJ - I'd never heard of it before then and most likely would never have come across it or even realised a need or use but for seeing it here.

Anyway, my reason for writing this is to say how pleased I am to have bought it. It's a super piece of work and has done everything I've needed in marking up my notes on several pdf files in the most intuitive of ways.

I am currently working on one and found I can switch easily between markup tools using hot keys - very useful, the developer has definitely given this program a lot of thought.

I hit a road block and was unable to mark up a protected file but a quick look at the FAQ help on the website provided a super workaround and I was able to print the whole file of 206 pages in seconds to a new pdf file that accepted my note markups.

Only glitch so far is extracting text to the clickboard is not perfect but the developer explains why and again provides a workaround that is fine - you can capture an image of the text and paste it into another application via the clipboard if the text grab is having a problem.

A great piece of software that's been very well thought out, powerful and yet easy to use - bravo to GRAHL and BitsDuJour for bringing it to us.

Anand TulpuleOliver Grahl,
I have purchased this software on 26 April, 2011 on this site.
I have received an e-mail from you stating that the 2 year upgrade is available for student license. Is the license purchased here by me a student license? If so then can I use it for my office work?
Thanks and Regards,

Oliver GrahlAnand, your license purchased through BitsDuJour is a regular license, not a student license. Our 2 Years Upgrade Assurance can be added to new orders, but it cannot be added later. So, when the next major upgrade is out, you can order an upgrade license, and than you can add our 2 Years Upgrade Assurance. Hope this helps.

Oren PazI have been using PDF Annotator for more than 4 years now - since early 2007, and have tried other PDF editing products like NitroPDF and others. I am a Compliance and Information Security professional, and I use PDF documents extensively.

Three things I can say, which I stand behind 100%:

1. PDF Annotator has been one of the tools I use the most in both my work and personal life, as it allows me to write things, fill out various fields and even add my hand written signature in PDF documents sent to me (I have a pen based tablet which allows me to sign my name right in the PDF file, and I also use a saved JPEG of my signature and paste it where my signature is required if I don't want to use the pen). Having the ability to use PDF documents like I use MS-Word documents has been an extremely useful capability, and well-worth the price of the PDF Annotator application

2. Of all the products I have compared PDF Annotator to, installing trial version of commercial alternatives, and the products that are either free or "free" (if anyone installed enough such applications you will understand what I mean) - PDF Annotator has always proven to be the better choice - both in features as well as ease of use

3. And last - but definitely not least, when you are buying a product from a rather small provider / vendor (sorry Mr. Grahl, but I am comparing you to companies like Microsoft, Adobe, Etc…) – you want to know, and need to know what you should expect to get from that provider, how they will handle customer service and support, how reliable and trustworthy they are (you are giving them your hard-earned money, after all…), and how committed they are to the product they sold you. Again – having used PDF Annotator for more than 4 years, I have had situations when I needed support – for technical issues, or license questions (like losing my original license code) and others. I have the emails to prove this:
Whenever I contacted Grahl Software for ANY issue – I always got answers within a day or less than that, always productive and effective answers (like re-sending my license code to me, or re-sending me an updated version download link), and always in the spirit of “we WILL solve your problem, or answer your question, we will NOT leave you hanging or frustrated”. Being a professional in IT for about 17 years now – that is not something I can say about ANY OTHER VENDOR I have worked with before, in most cases.
Even when I sent Grahl Software a “complaint” about some usability issue I did not like with the version I first used back in 2007 – something to do with the way their menus look and work, the next version that they released (which they do a fantastic job letting you know about, through their email notification service – probably the least irritating and intrusive one I have ever subscribed to…) just a few short weeks or so later – fixed that issue and completely resolved the problem I complained about. What other software company can you say that about?...

Bottom line:
I will put my personal email address (not my primary one, true – but still one that I can be reached through), to prove to anyone that wants that I am not just writing this review without being accountable for it, and to allow anyone with questions for a regular “real” user of this application (someone who just went online and bought this application like anyone else) to ask me whatever you want directly.
All the best.

Oliver GrahlSo, for everyone interested in getting our Upgrade Assurance with the software: We've reduced the price for 2 Years Upgrade Assurance to $19.99 for today! With Upgrade Assurance you get all minor *and* major upgrades for free within those two years.

Oliver GrahlAs you probably know, PDF Annotator can deal with Unicode in PDF documents, but has problems with Unicode filenames. As far as I know from the devs, this will be fixed with a new release in the next couple of months. And that update will be a free update for anybody buying today.

Avi SI have purchased the product today with the BDJ promotion, and I am happy to report that I processed and resaved files with completely Hebrew filenames, without any problem whatsoever.
(@Oliver - what exactly is the issue with Unicode filenames?)

Avi SQuick report on the product: the annotation interface is intuitive, easy, and powerful, allowing for quick yet effective annotations.
I should note, though, that PDF Annotator also offers options for some global changes - specifically, for cropping and for adding margins - but here there is a serious shortcoming in the interface. When choosing the amount of crop/margin, the effect is displayed vis-a-vis the current page; however, since this is a document-wide change, the user really needs to be able to scroll through the pages to see the effect across the documents. This is *especially* true when cropping, in order to be sure that no important text is cut off.
For comparison, in Acrobat Pro, when using the watermark tool, the user can quickly leaf through the document in the preview window to see the effect of the watermark on each and every page.
In sum, as it is, the product is a very worthwhile purchase as far as changes to specific pages are concerned. However, the global tools leave much to be desired. I do hope that the producers of this project will properly bolster the preview support for the crop and margin tools to turn these into serious tools as well.

Avi SOne more feature/issue:
A wonderful feature of the product is the "Insert Image" option, to simply take a JPG and paste it into the PDF and to position it as needed on a given page. For some reason, this simple operation is notoriously difficult in Adobe Acrobat Pro, even with advanced prepress tools such as Pitstop Pro.
However, on the flip side, the implementation here appears to have its problems. Specifically, I cannot find any way to instruct PDF Annotator regarding the resolution that it should adopt for the picture. In my tests, it significantly reduced the resolution of the pictures I inserted, down to 150 dpi. I don't think that's a reasonable thing for a program to do; if I want to reduce the size of the PDF, that's one thing, but in other cases I think it is critical for users to have the option to use the full resolution if they so desire.

Its just that I often use the "scan to pdf" in Adobe Acrobat. Its version 5 so getting a little long in the tooth. I've been thinking about looking for a more cost effective Acrobat replacement and thought PA3 might be just the thing.

Oliver GrahlHi Paul,
PDF Annotator 4 supports Windows 8 very well. It even went through the Windows 8 certification without any issues. The only thing which doesn't work yet under Win8 is the "Print to PDF Annotator" printer, which will receive a (free) upgrade in the next 1-2 weeks.
-Oliver

Bruno Verschraegen@Oliver
Actually, seeing the note about Print to PDF Annotator. After upgrading from v3 to v4 the other week, we noticed that the "Print to PDF Annotator" option has disappeared from the print options list - and we are not running WIndows 8 but WIndows 7 Ultimate. Will this too be fixed and will we receive the update automatically?

Javier GilHave there been any improvements in this version for the transparency issues?
What about stamps management? there are issues when importing new stamps: size is different for example.
If upgrading our current version (v3 in my case) is more expensive than buying a new license, do you reckon I should buy a new license instead? (I think you guys should think a little more about your faithful users, we deserve to be treated at least just as well if not better than new customers ;) )

Oliver GrahlJavier, did you report the issues you're referring to before? Please send us an email to support AT grahl-software.com, and we'll be happy to help. Our upgrade price for the single license is US$34.95, I'd say it's neither more expensive than this deal, nor is it cheaper. It's the same. :-)

Oliver Grahl@Peter R: Natürlich! PDF Annotator 4 is multi-lingual. It will eventually pick up the right language on install, if not, just switch it in the settings. We do presently support English, German and French.

Mary WilsonI was comparing the new to the old version, and see a couple of new features that this makes it worth the cost of upgrading for me. I only have one question which will effect my decision on whether to upgrade or not. Starting to use my laptop more than my main system. Can I put my one copy on both my laptop and my main system without having to buy two copies.

Oliver Grahl@Mary Wilson: Good that you asked this question! Our license agreement allows a single license to be installed on up to two computers, as long as only one of both installations will be used at a time. So, only if you'd use both simultaneously (yourself with your octopus arms, or you and somebody else), you'd need a second license. Does that sound fair?

LitoI know you claim any PDF but I want to be sure, will this let you annotate protected PDFs? My issue with PDFs is many are set to be unmodifiable which for somethings makes no sense at all. So if I want to put a note in a motherboard manual PDF for future reference, it won't let me without a password. The workarounds aren't exactly nice like printing out the manual into another PDF and tripling or quadrupling the size of it so I can add comments/notes.

Oliver Grahl@Lito: If a PDF is password protected and commenting is not allowed, then you cannot annotate it in PDF Annotator. That's the nature of PDF security. As you say, the workaround is to print the PDF into a new document - as far as the original author allowed printing. Nobody can prevent you from editing a copy of a document. I won't agree that this will quadruple the document's size. Printing to PDF is not scanning (and converting all pages to images). It can even reduce the size, but all that depends on the document.

Max FrenkelI use PDF-XChange 4 Pro to crop existing pdfs so that I can create a new pdf which, for instance, shows only a shortened left hand column of the original. This is very easy and exact to the milimetre. Is that also possible with PDF Annotator (I actually own version 3)?

Oliver GrahlDear BitsDuJour Fans,
it's always a great pleasure to chat with you! It's close to midnight at our end of the world now, so please bear with me if I won't be able to answer more questions today. Time to hit the hay. If there are any open questions, I'll be happy to answer them tomorrow (my) morning, and always feel free to contact us at support AT grahl-software.com for technical questions!
Take care,
-Oliver

Steven AveryIt looks like a nice program. I have to study the bookmark feature. Suggestion, do your second day ! (Else, maybe I can contact the publisher.) Much as I appreciate money-back guarantees, they are not my cup of tea on internet and software, so I have to try more.

VLMThanks Oliver. BTW, I do have an enhancement suggestion: Your way of displaying recent documents lags far behind what is available in MANY other PDF products. Instead of having one pull-right from Open, make a separate item on the File menu called "Recent Documents", then group the documents into today, yesterday, last 7/14/30/30+ days. Even better, offer an option to group by category/tag/keyword. Of course, that might require adding some kind of category/tag/keyword to the product. :)

Also, is there a way to restore prior session, and even a setting o make that happen automatically?

Also, what happens to documents that are opened but not yet saved when a crash occurs? Are they lost? In a temp directory somewhere? Really, those should appear in the Recent list, but under an item called "Not Yet Saved" or the like.

Oliver Grahl@VLM: Thanks for your suggestions. There's no setting to restore a previous session. If a crash would occur, the program will automatically open the files which had not been saved in the previous session, and notify you. They will display the last auto-save status; the auto-save interval can be set in the settings.

VLMThanks Oliver. Hopefully it's clear that my other suggestions still stand. Meanwhile ... if a file has not yet been manually saved, then where does the software put the autosave file(s)? In roaming/data/something???

Oliver Grahl@VLM: Of course we don't save the whole document, that would be more than inefficient. Only the "delta", means the latest changes to the original document get auto-saved. That data gets saved to the %Temp% directory, but it's of no use on its own.

Oliver Grahl@VLM: That part is beyond the scope of our software. In case (1), the browser saves the PDF to a temporary location, and will instruct Windows to open it using the default program for .PDF files. In case (2), the email software does the same.

VLMOliver Grahl - Just a simple-minded user here, of course ... The software may be PUT there by somebody else, but what PDF Annotator does with it is another matter, it is indeed within your control ... is it not?

Charles BeauchampAs with other educators (in my case medical education) who use tablet computers with large monitor display for a group (or individual patient), I see the utility of using PDF Annotator for both student AND patient education..

Is there a potential of a further discount if one purchases 20 copies?

Charles BeauchampI also would like to know if it is possible for motivated student to act a "affiliate marketers" and thereby "spread the word" while making money for themselves.. In the field of medical (and pre-medical) education this could be a boon to your marketing efforts, especially if sold to individuals who have access to a "bank" of pertinent pdf's for specific teaching purpose.

I see, for example, the opportunity to use your product internationally for the education of students interested in health professions where there are freely distributable pdf's from PubMed that address specific education needs.

For instance, "my education thing" is teaching public health biology pertinent to improving outcomes of primary care starting, believe it or not, in the ninth grade.

One of the best ways I learned was to participate in an ongoing "journal club" where the professors taught us to think critically and creatively by reviewing a literature article we found interesting within a group setting.

What better way to do the above online than by using PDF Annotator?

Imagine the marketing possibilities if you can get pre-med -- medical student -- resident in training -- practicing physician and/or researcher -- future students AND patient use of your product to think critically and creatively, even in multiple languages, across the globe?

Oliver GrahlHi Charles, this is a consumer promotion for single licenses. So, please be aware that this deal is only valid for one license. Although you can order multiple licenses through this deal, the discount will only be applied for one license. For 5 licenses or more, our volume pricing kicks in. For 20 users, for example, it's US$ 54.95 per user. For 25 users, it's $49.95. And we have completely different, discounted prices for students. Check out our website for details, or contact me by email if you need a quote for a specific number of users. Hope that helps!

Royce EnglehartI already own this but I can't find out how to do the main thing I bought this for... add signatures. I have read the manual, I did a search in contents (under help) and the only thing it found for signature was the word signature in the manual where it tells me all the wonderful things this program does. Nowhere though can I find instructions on how to put a signature in a PDF doc with this program. Am I missing something?

Oliver Grahl@VLM: All features in PDF Annotator apply to annotations made in PDF Annotator, not those created in Acrobat or similar. This is a promotion for the regular version, not the student version. Does that help?

Loco DriverI have to fill out a nasty multipage PDF form every year or so. The dang thing loads with Adobe Reader and there are more than 100 fillable fields (Some text, some check-boxes). Of course not every field has to be filled for my use, maybe 65-70. Each time I use the form, most of the data is exactly the same as when I filled it out the last time. At most, maybe 10 fields might have to be updated. Here's the hook. . . The data entered into the form can't be saved. When you try to save the form a notice appears saying the data won't be saved, just the blank form.

I've tried to find a way around this annoying "feature" - no luck so far. I don't know enough about Adobe Acrobat to know if this is a design feature and I'm not about to spend a couple hundred bucks on Adobe Acrobat to see if it's even possible to reverse-engineer the form.

Is there a possibility your product might circumvent this built-in aspect of the form?

VLMOlliver - I just reread your earlier comment. What is the functional difference between this version and the student version, if any? Or is it just a special license/offer, so that students become familiar with the product and carry it with them into their careers?

TazzieI am having trouble paying for this ... the paypal option would not complete, so after several tries I gave up and went the cc route ... now I am on the final page and have twice entered "Order" only to have this page show up again. I am afraid to keep trying lest I end up with multiple charges.

I would appreciate some help with this ... only so many minutes left to the deal and I would hate to lose out just because of a web page glitch.

@VLM: The Adobe collaboration process is a totally different thing, you're right. With PDF Annotator, you can write on PDF just as you write on paper, that's our approach. Plus all the additional PDF manipulation tools it includes (like reordering pages, adding margins, cropping pages), which can come in handy even if you don't add comments. We did a student license promotion in the past, but this one is for the regular license. Not sure if there's going to be another student promotion in the future, since our student pricing is already so heavily discounted (less than half the full price). There's no functional difference between regular and student licenses, it's just an offer to accommodate (some g) students' tight budgets.

@Loco_Driver: Forms in PDF Annotator will be treated like any PDF. You can place annotations wherever you like (i.e. place text boxes where the form fields are), but you won't have the form fields being editable like in Adobe Reader. That enables you to cross all form field boundaries and place text just wherever you want (sometimes handy, if form fields are too small). And of course you can save and edit later. I'd recommend just giving our trial a try, and see if this works for you.

Brian HHi- I am a long-time user (and purchaser) of this program, and I love its many features and great ways to express creativity when working with PDF files. One thing I find difficult to deal with though (and I'm not sure if perhaps there is a fix/workaround for this that I am not currently aware of) is the large area/margins inside "text boxes" placed on documents. I find when I want to type out replies to questions on forms, the text box boundaries are often so large, that they prohibit me from creating another text box close by (or underneath) of the previous text box; so I often end up using workarounds, such as creating the next, new text box way far away from where I need it to be (which would be in close proximity to another established text box) and then typing my answer and having to use the arrow tool to then move the new text box to where I need it to be (closer to the other, first text box). Other than this, I really do love the program! Oliver (or perhaps another more-exerienced program user)- is there a workaround to this problem, or perhaps a different/better way for me to be filling out forms (using text)? Thanks, in advance, for any help or suggestions with this issue. :-) -Brian

VLMOliver - Just to be abundantly clear, when you say "The Adobe collaboration process is a totally different thing, you're right," you mean that PDF Annotator does not support this process, correct? Or do you mean that it supports BOTH this process AND its own annotations? This is an important point, because for me, at least, PDF without collaboration is far less useful than it is with collaboration.

Oliver Grahl@VLM PDF Annotator does not support the Adobe collaboration process, sorry if that wasn't clear. We're not trying to copy Adobe. PDF Annotator works differently in a couple of ways. For some kinds of use this is helpful (for example, handwritten comments in the quality we provide are not possible in any other tool we're aware of), for other requirements, Adobe's suite will be required - at its price. Having said all this - we offer a trial version for download, so everybody can see by themselves, if our functionality would fit their needs.

Oliver Grahl@Brian: I know exactly what you mean. I could go into the technical details and explain why it is how it is, but of course that wouldn't help you a lot. I know this issue is on our todo list, I'll check with the team if we can prioritize this. So, there's nothing you're doing wrong - and we plan to improve the text box size functionality as soon as possible.

VLMWell, actually ... Will another reader (Adobe or otherwise) be able to see all the annotations we create in PDF Annotator, the images we add, handwritten notes, and the like? Or are those proprietary to your product? And if proprietary, what will those other products do when they encounter such elements, since they are, in fact, part of the PDF file?

Oliver Grahl@VLM: A very important question! *Absolutely*, all annotations added in PDF Annotator will be visible in other PDF viewers! Plus, they stay editable in PDF Annotator when you reopen the PDF later on. You can select to "Melt all annotations" though. If you do so, they will not be editable any more. If you don't "melt" them, annotations will be grouped into a separate layer on top of the original PDF page, so you can hide/show them in other tools like Adobe Reader. Does that make sense?

Corno JacobsenI bought this program some time ago at BdJ after having read the comments, but in truth I found it very awkward in use. Uninstalled and quit. Took my loss. It was of course, my own fault, I should have tried out the trial-version first.

Oliver Grahl@VLM: Not exactly. Annotations can *always* be viewed in other viewers, melted or not. When re-opening a file, annotations can only be edited in PDF Annotator, and only if you did not melt them before. That's it.

Ela S.Thanks for the prolongation of your kind offer. I have finally bought it after long consideration to the high price.

Using Adobe Acrobat for the more technical things in PDF (e. g. making booksmark in Adobe is more comfortable, document scanning, OCR reading etc), I am looking foreward to use PDF Annotator more for the reading and "hand work".

So far, I used PDF XChange Pro for this, but PDF Annotator seems to offer much more options.

Esp when using a tablet / pen which I still need to decide on. Any recommodations which tablets/ eBook readers / pens work well with PDF Annotator?

Oliver Grahl@Nog: In fact, we recommend using Tablet PCs with touch and pen, like the MS Surface or other brands. This might become costly, so if you're looking for an external graphics tablet, we're pretty happy with the Wacom Bamboo. An external tablet will not be as intuitive as a Tablet PC, though. Having said this, you don't essentially need a tablet to use PDF Annotator. It works great with mouse & keyboard as well. But if you want to use handwriting markup, a tablet makes sense, of course.
@Peter: Louis nailed it down. There's no functional difference between regular and student versions - but only students are entitled to the student version.

If I wish to make any handwritten amendments by applying the stylus to an image of what I am amending, Does it have to be a tablet, or are there external writing pads / graphics tablets that will provide that functionality? Does the Wacom Bamboo display the image that is being amended so that you are applying the stylus to the image when amending the document?

Oliver GrahlThe Wacom Bamboo is an external graphics tablet, it is just an input device and won't display anything. Higher end tablets include screens, but when you go that way, I would definitely favor a real, portable tablet pc, like the Microsoft Surface Pro or the Fujitsu Q704. But all this is just my personal recommendation. Your hardware vendor should be the address of your choice to get hardware recommendations. Our software works well on anything that runs Windows.

However, what is concerning me is probably a software thing. What I am keen to understand is how, when using an external graphics tablet such as the Bamboo, you know where to put the stylus on the tablet in order to mark a particular point on the image on your computer screen. Or how you can designate the area on the image on the screen on which you wish to write, so that what you write on the tablet is placed where you want it to be on the image on the screen. I'd like to be able to mark up pdf pages (and any others documents that can be so marked up) in manuscript, but I do not wish to procure a tablet pc just for that purpose, and currently have no other reason to acquire one.

Oliver GrahlWhen you move the pen slightly above the surface of a tablet like the Bamboo, you move the cursor on screen just like a mouse does. So, the tablet recognizes the pen even if it's not pressed down, typically within a range of about 1/4 inch. You only write when you press the pen down onto the tablet's surface. Maybe you got the chance to try a Bamboo somewhere?

Noggin The NogThanks Oliver. That is very helpful to know. And would I be right in assuming that the tablet responds to pressure from the pen but not from the palm which may be resting on the tablet when writing on it with the stylus?

I appreciate your point about visiting a shop, but not infrequently it has been in my experience an unhelpful, uninformative, costly, laborious, time consuming and rather overrated experience that I am becoming less and less inclined to engage in, or even view as a practical solution except for limited purposes. The idea that whoever you find in a shop will have much knowledge of the goods being sold, or that any answers provided will be accurate, is seductive but perhaps optimistic.

Noggin The NogThanks for helping me over the threshold of the subject of digitisers / graphics tablets. There is quite a lot to it, and it is something of a hurdle for the uninitiated.

Since one of the prominent features of your software is the making of manuscript annotations, perhaps an essay on the hardware approaches to being equipped to do so, with references to relevant sources of information, would be a useful addition to your FAQ.

1. Does v. 5 preserve traditional menus, or have you gone down the ribbon hole?

2. When you talk about adding and sharing comments, are these Acrobat-compatible comments or PDF Annotator-only comments?

3. What is the on-screen zooming capability of the product? Is it user settable, or just a list of presets?

4. Is there an OCR-type feature that can convert scanned documents to searchable PDFs? And can PDFs be converted out to Word, etc?

5. When tabbing through a set of open documents, will tab and ctrl-tab go back and forth between most recent documents, much like Windows alt-tab and ctrl-alt-tab, or does the application tab around in some other order?

6. How many documents max in recent docs, history?

I like the new shortcut features and the restore from last session feature!

RaymondI downloaded the trial and it worked great! It handled my needs very nicely and the author was very responsive to my email questions!!! Many thanks.... my mouse is moving toward the [Get this Deal] button right now!

Fred ShepherdTried to check out via PayPal. Got to a screen that says, "You are being automatically transferred to PayPal", but it didn't. Tried to check our via credit card and got to the point of clicking the Buy Now button. Nothing.
Had no problem buying a different product, so I must deduce that the problem is on your end.

Oliver Grahl@Fred Shepherd, sorry to hear you ran into that issue with Paypal. Please try again after closing and restarting your browser. If it still doesn't work, please let me know and we can arrange for sending you a Paypal receipt manually. Sorry again for the trouble.

LitoThis is a really nice PDF program and I would recommend it but only if you don't use it with very large PDF files (exceeding about 1GB). It has one major drawback for me and that it is only 32bit. I hope you are prioritizing a full 64bit version release. I would definitely love to update to v5 but I have a couple of PDFs that exceed what annotator can handle.

Oliver Grahl@Joe McCormick, the fine print says you may install on two computers. But when you're the one and only user, it's okay for us when you install on four machines, as well. The intention is: one user, one license.

CJCotterI already have Adobe Acrobat Standard. In comparison, is this a "lite" version? Does it have features that Adobe Acrobat Standard does not? I'm interested in PDF Annotator, but there's no sense in me getting it if I already have all of the tools. Please advise. Thank you.

Oliver Grahl@CJCotter, when you already own the pretty costly Adobe Acrobat software, it will of course already cover lots of the functionality. What you can't do in Acrobat is adding handwritten comments all over your PDF, like notes, highlights, underline, any kind of markup. This can be especially helpful if you own a tablet pc like the Surface, or an external graphics tablet like a Wacom Bamboo. Just give our trial a try if you'd like to get an impression. When you're happy with Acrobat, and don't miss anything, you probably don't need any other PDF tools. But only *you* can know if you're happy with your current toolset.

CJCotterWell, no, I'm not happy with Acrobat. I got it as a free gift for buying an expensive scanner. I view it as bloatware. This is why I was asking if PDF Annotator was a "lite" version. I don't need the entire collection of tools as seen on "The New Yankee Workshop", if all I need is a hammer, screwdriver, and some wrenches. "Lite" can be good. I'll download it and try it out.

My question is this: Do the markup elements ... notes, reviewer notes, etc. ... work in other PDF tools that support standard PDF format, or are they specific to Annotator? I ask, because my work involves people who use various software. If I have the greatest thing since sliced bread, and they can't use the output, then what I have is a very fancy oven, so to speak.

Oliver Grahl@Angel: Without knowing anything about your PDF, if it's a PDF, and if the author didn't disallow editing, you should be able to annotate it in PDF Annotator, yes!

@HarBri: Sorry to hear that. I just checked the process, and it all worked fine here. Please try to close and re-open your browser, or maybe try in a different browser. That often helps with issues like this.

Joe McCormickYour fine print states: PDF Annotator (New Version 5!) is licensed per user.
So I have 5 computers at home. I will be the only one using this program.
Does your license allow me to install the program on all of my computers?

Bertie BrummelIs it allowed to install the software on several own computers, only used by me? They are connected to a Keyboard / Video / Mouse switch, so only 1 instance can be used at exactly the same time.

Cary AdamsI purchased the previous version here at BDJ and offer my unsolicited comments. First of all, this software is well-supported and probably the best pdf mark-up tool period.

That all said, this is an expensive tool. In my world, pdf markups are for temporary use, and the level of sophistication offered here. There are many free pdf make-up tools that satisfy the need for basic pdf annotations. While not as diverse (or "pretty") as is offered here, they are often sufficient for the task at hand.

What I would like to see at this price is full pdf editing capability which permits text editing (retaining original font equivalency), text & image deletion, and redaction.

Another price point... recently I was offered a discount to upgrade my copy of PDF Annotator. The upgrade cost was $5 less than an upgrade I had received from Nitro Pro (a full featured pdf editor). Although PDF Annotator offers a superior mark-up pallet, the more powerful Nitro program has adequate capability for my needs.

I like this program but its cost-to-feature value makes it too expensive for my use. If your mark-up needs require a more "professional" appearance, then this tool should satisfy your need,

Edward SmithI agree with Cary Adams completely, however, having said that, I am purchasing PDF annotator today. I have been using this product for a long time and it does everything I needed it to do. I am familiar with it, so for me, the extra price is worth not having to learn another program. At 50% off, I am going to upgrade since this offer is less expensive than the upgrade price from 5 to 6.

John HHi Oliver
Thanks for the great deal. My trial version expires tomorrow.
I used this back in 2009 for note taking with an IBM X41 Tablet.
Now I have a Lenovo X220 Tablet. This is so much better than using an art program to make simple engineering sketches.

One Note bloatware is no longer an option as I am abandoning the Microsoft marketing platform for my proprietary design work.

Could you comment on using PDF Annotator on Linux under Wine and Crossover.

... If you submit your software to Crossover and some $$$$ they will give you a package that you can sell to run on a Mac.

Tony WI want to buy this- but why is the upgrade assurance $35? Wish it was either included or 1/2 off as well. The upgrade assurance is much cheaper on the pdf annotator website, so if I upgrade from version 5 there with the upgrade assurance, it's cheaper than getting it here.

Oliver Grahl@Louis: Looking at our previous releases, I wouldn't expect v7 earlier than mid next year. Our regular upgrade pricing will apply then, but of course you can stay with v6 as long as you want. HTH.

An upgrade protection offer I could add on would be an incentive for me to take this offer because I really don't want to upgrade now and again in 12 months which I regard as being on an upgrade merry-go-round. Version 6 is not really new given it has been out for over a year already- is that about right?

"Current Version" would have been a fairer description in this offer rather than "New Version" don't you think?

Michael KUm.. just clicked through to the order page and I see the 2 year upgrade assurance doubles the cost and yet it will only catch 1 major paid upgrade..... back to the thinking drawing board for me.

bsr007Hi Oliver, I am currently running PDF Annotator Version 5. If I purchase PDF Annotator Version 6 can it be installed over the top of Version 5 (or do I need to uninstall Version 5 first)? Thanks for your help.

Oliver Grahl@bsr007: No need to uninstall, just install on top of the old version. My recommendation is to enter the new license number upfront, in the old version (Help, Change Unlock Key), then use Help, Version Check to upgrade.

Joe McCormickI have had this program since version 5, now using version 6. It is a great program for editing PDF documents. Its one weakness is that it does not support scanners for creating a new document. It would be nice if it had a scanning feature. Maybe that could be added to the new version when it becomes available.

MojoManIf it had scanning capabilities with image correction type features I'd buy the new version (I have an older version). Still looking for an all in one document processing solution and can't find a reasonably priced one anywhere.... So I have to use multiple apps to do the job. But.... I guess this is not really PDFA's intention and it does what it does well.... and I'm not going to subscribe to Adobe's monthly subscription solution as I REALLY don't like the SAS/subscription model.

Joe McCormickMojoMan. Try Paperport 14.5 or File center 10. Paperport is still available but is really no longer supported. File Center 10 is a new upgrade an is supported.
I think you will find that PDF Annotator still has more options for editing PDF files then the other two I have mentioned.

W MaIs there auto-scrolling of the window when text is being selected? I can only select text when it shows in the current window, even when that window doesn't show the whole page.

Can text be selected across two pages? When I try to select text across two pages (when window shows the bottom of one page and top of next page), the text selection only goes to the bottom of the first page and doesn't include text from the next page.

Oliver Grahl@Joe: I wonder what you're talking about, and how this would be related to our product. I have never heard about the company you mentioned (iSkySoft). They seem to have a PDF product, but their product is in no relation to our product PDF Annotator. Please explain why you're posting this unrelated rant here, thanks.